Saturday, September 15, 2018

September 16, 2018

"Make every effort to add to your faith goodness" II Peter 1:5a

Peter spent the first four verses setting the table with all the great things God has prepared for His people. Wow! What a feast!

And then in verse 5 it is as though he yells, "Come and get it!"

To get it will require devotion.

Will you devote yourself to receiving the good things God has for you?

Further, Peter declares that you are not to be satisfied with those good things but God has more in store!

"Add to your faith", he urges.

What that means is, "Support or cooperate with God".

That is a call for desire.

Do desire more of what you have received from God? Do you desire it more than you desire anything else?

So the question then becomes, "What do I add to my faith and how do I know when I have it?"

"Add to your faith goodness"!

Goodness means "virtue" or "moral courage".

The way you know you have added to your faith is when you find yourself facing temptations and trials with moral courage - the courage to do good!

Maintaining His goodness and living with moral courage requires devotion and desire AND discipline. Discipline means saying  "no" to anything that is inconsistent with the goodness of God so you can say "yes" to things pertaining to goodness.

Are you living a disciplined life? Are you committed to maintaining your moral courage?

What a great hope you have in Christ! You can have everything to need to live a godly life and escape the corruption of this evil world. But it will take devotion and it will take desire and it will take discipline.

Do you have what it takes?